Dresser to Wine Bar Tutorial

Have a butt ugly dresser sitting around? Turn it into a wine bar for all (legal aged people) to enjoy. This project was the result of a stark black dresser that needed a new home. Black latex paint with shiny chrome-plated bathroom hardware made up the BEFORE of this piece. But as you can see, the dresser was reconfigured, painted, and given the final touch with a custom wine rack made from stained 1X2 lumber. I went with a two-tone paint theme and dark, dark wood accents. Chunky ottoman legs were added along with some new hardware to give this dresser a new life!

The finished project features 2 open spaces, a small and large drawer, and a 20 bottle wine rack.

This beautiful butcher block top was finished with the Rustoleum stain called Kona.

This ugly dresser has potential but needs a few key details!

Chunky ottoman legs were painted and added to the bottom of the dresser for height.

The exterior is painted a bright white color and the interior compartments (and the sides of the drawers) were painted a light green color.

After the exterior and interior painting was complete, I taped off butcher block top and used 2 coats of Valspar Kona wood stain followed by tung oil.

After the painting was complete, I used 1X2 whitewood lumber (it's much nicer to work with versus furring strips), to build the wine rack. Measuring from back to front, I cut strips of wood and stained them to match the butcher block top. Once they were dry, I started on the ends and worked my way inward. I would advise laying out your strips before tacking them with a nail gun.

The smaller/regular size bottles needed 1.5" spacing.

The fat bottom bottles needed 2.25" spacing.

If you want to add a second rack, sufficient support is needed. I used a strip of 1X2 stained lumber as a back support and two smaller upright pieces to hold the top rack in place. I made the top rack removable and with a slight tilt - it's better for the wine!

The top rack is a matter of using the same layout as the bottom rack and replicating it using long strips of stained 1X2 lumber to "sandwich" the rack. I have a full tutorial on my blog!

A dresser has found more purpose in life!

Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!